Printing press



H; A. w. WOOD March 5, 1935.

PRINTING PRESS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Original Filed June 18, 1931 EY i March5, 1935.

I H. A. w. WOOD PRINTING PRESS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Original Filed June 18,1931 Patented Mar. 5, 1935 UNITED STATES PATENT orr cs PRINTING PRESSHenry A. Wise Wood, New York, N. Y., assignor to Wood NewspaperMachinery Corporation, v New York, N. Y., a corperation of VirginiaApplicationJune 18, 1931, Serial No. 545,198. Renewed August 2, 1934 6Claims.

ii arrangement of single impression and multiple impression printingunits, whereby a publication,

such for instance as a newspaper, may be printed;

partly in single color and partly in multiple colors or entirely inmultiple colors, if so desired.

By the term single-impression unit and single-color unit I mean eitheran ordinary printing couple which makes an impression on one face onlyof a web, or a perfecting unit,-that is, a pair of printing couplesthrough which a web is led in suchmanner as to receive an impression oneach face thereof. Usually the impressions are in black but anyothercolor of ink may be used andthe color of the printing on one faceofthe webmay be different from that on the other. It will be understoodtherefore that the terms single-impression unit and single-color unit asused in the following specification, and claims refer to a unit whichcannot print in more than one color on either face of a web, therebydistinguishingfrom a multiple impression unit, or multi-color unit whichmay make a number of impressions on a face of a web and said impressionsmay be in different colors.

In a copending application Serial No. 512,029, filed January 29, 1931, Idisclose a novel form of multiple impression printing unit combined witha perfecting press unit, in which one unit is disposed above the other,and in another copending application Serial No. 520,292, filed March 5,1931, I disclose an arrangement of multiple impression units and singleimpression units in which the units are arranged in tandem.

An object of the present invention is to provide an arrangement similarto that shown in the latter copending application wherein a tandemseries of multiple impression and single impression units are arrangedin alternation, means being provided, however, for leading a web from asingle impression unit to either of the multiple impression unitsdisposed respectively on opposite sides thereof. Thus a web printed inblack on one face by a single color unit may be printed in multiplecolors on the other faceby either of two multi-color units disposed onopposite sides thereof.

Another object of the invention is to provide means whereby the web maybe led through the printing units in'such direction as to receive imonthe same face thereof. p

A further object is to provide a multi-color unit with means for guidingaweb therethrough from opposite sides of the unit, the latter beingreversible so that'the direction of the web through the unit may bevaried at will.

My invention also includes assembling and folding meehanism with meansforleading the pressions from the single and multi-color units Webs fromvarious units thereto. I I prefer to use a multi-color press of the typedisclosed in said co-pending application Serial No. 512,929, wherein aplurality of plate cylinders are disposed in an annular series about asingle impression cylinder, each plate cylinder having its own inkingsystem. However, my invention is not limited to the use of thisparticular form of multi-color press.

Other objects of the invention will appear in the following descriptiontaken in connection with the accompanying drawings and thereafter thenovelty and scope of the invention will bepointed out in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings; 7

Figure 1 is a diagrammatic side elevation of a combined single color andmulti-color press with a'pair of webs running through the press andbeing assembled into a unitary product; and- Fig. 2 is a similar view,but showing a different lead of the web through the printing units ofthe press. 7

Referring first to the arrangement shown in Fig. i, I provide a printingcouple A and on eitherside thereof are multi-color units B and 13 respectively. On the opposite side from the unit A, of the multi-colorunit D, is a printing couple C. Thus there is a seriesof printing unitsconsisting alternately of single color and multi-color units, whichseries maybe continued to include as many units as maybe desired.

The single-color unit A comprises an impres sion cylinder 11 and a platecylinder 12 provided with the usual inking system 13. The multi-colorunit 13, to the left of the single color unit A, comprises a singleimpression cylinder 14 and a plurality'of plate cylinders 15, 16, 17 andl 8 disposed annularly about the impression cylinder 14. Each of theplate cylinders of the'mult-icolor unit is provided with its own inkingsystem 20 so that four different colors may be printed by themulti-color unit; p

A web a is led over a guide roller 21 and thence. between the cylindersof the printing couple A;

thereof. From the printing couple A the web is led over a guide roller22 and about the impression cylinder 14 to receive, on the opposite faceof the web, multi-color impressions from cylinders 15 to 18 inclusive.The web is led out of the multi-color unit about a guide roller 23 andthen passes about guide rollers 24, 25 and 26 to a drag roll 27. Here aslitter roll 28 may be used to slit the web into a plurality of strips,two being shown at a and a respectively. An assembling mechanism,indicated generally at 29, is employed to bring the strips intosuperposed position before they are led over a roll 33 to a folder F. h

The units C and D are similar to the unit A and B respectively. Theparts in unit D which correspond to parts in unit B are indicated withthe same reference numerals with, however, a prime suffix. A web may beled through the units C and D in the same way as the web a is ledthrough the units A and B. Thus after passing through the unit C the web0 is led over roller 22 and thence about the impression cylinder 14' toreceive impressions from plate cylinders 15', 16, 17 and 18". Emergingfrom the multi-color unit the web c'is led about the guide rollers 23and 24' to a drag roll 30, where it is slit by means of a slitter roll31 into a plurality of strips, two of which are indicated at c and 0respectively. An assembling mechanism, indicated generally at 32, isemployed to bring the strips 0 and 0 into superposed relation and alsointo vertical alignment with the strips 11 and a All of these stripsthen pass in superposed relation about the roll 33 and are fed to thefolder F.

By the arrangement described above, a black impression may be applied toone face of each of the webs a and c by the printing couples A and Crespectively, while the opposite faces of these webs will receivemulticolor impressions from the units B and D. If desired, however, thisarrangement may be varied as follows: Instead of passing the web a fromthe unit A through the unit B it may be led about a compensating roller34 and thence under a roller 35 to the unit D. Here it may pass underthe plate cylinders 17 and 18', and thence under roller 23' and 24 tothe drag roll 30. By this arrangement the web a would receive a singlecolor impression on one face from unit A and a double color impressionon the other face from the plate cylinders 17 and 18. At the same timethe web 0 may be led from unit C into the unit D over the roller 22' toreceive impressions from cylinders 15 and 16'. Then the web may be ledout of the unit over a roller 36' and as indicated in dot-and dash linesmay be guided by rollers 37, 38 and 39 under the unit A and by therollers 24 and 25 to the drag roll 27.

If desired the web 0 may be dispensed with entirely and the web a may beled around the impression cylinder 14' so as to receive impressions fromthe plate cylinders of the unit D in the following order: 1'7, 18', 15'and 16'. Thence the web will be led under unit D, as indicated by brokenlines, by guide rollers 36, 37, 38, 40 and 24 to the drag roll 30. Bythis arrangement it will be observed that the web printed on one face bythe couple A will receive four impressions on the other face from theunit D. While I have shown only two single color and two multi-colorunits in the drawings it will be understood that the series may beextended as desired and hence each multi-color unit is provided withguide rollers on opposite sides thereof. Thus the unit B is providedwith rollers 35 and 36 to guide a web from a printing couple (not shown)at the left hand side thereof.

As stated above, the mechanism shown in Fig. 2 is the same as that shownin Fig. 1, but a different lead of webs through the printing units isshown in Fig. 2. Thus following the web 12, we find that it runs throughunit A and thence under roller 23 into the unit B instead of about theroller 22 as in Fig. 1. The web thus runs in reverse direction about theimpression cylin- 'der 14 and receives impressions in the order 18,

17, 16 and 15 from the plate cylinders of said unit. Emerging from theunit B the web b passes over the roller 22 and thence is led by means ofrollers, 41, 39, 42 and 43 under and around the unit'B. Thereafter it isguided by rollers 25 and 26 to the drag roll 27. Here it is slit intotwo or more strips 12 and b by slitter roll 28 and is then assembled inthe usual manner as described above before being led to the folder F.With this arrangement the single color and multi-color impressions aremade on the same face of the web.

Instead of passing a web from unit A through unit B it may run from unitA through unit D, as indicated by broken lines. Thus the Web 1) passesover the roll 34 and thence over guide roller 36 instead of 35' into theunit D. The web then runs around the cylinder 14' in counterclockwisedirection, receiving impressions from the plate cylinders 16, 15, 18 and17' in the order named.' Emerging from the unit D the web passes underroller 24 and thence is guided by rollers 25 and 26 to the drag roll 27.With this arrangement the units B and C are idle and the assemblingmechanism 32 is not used.

In order to permit of the various arrangements of web leads abovedescribed, the impression cylinders 14 and 14 are arranged to run eitherclockwise or counterclockwise as desired. Such arrangement being fullyshown and described in saidcopending application Serial No. 512,029,filed January 29, 1931. The plate cylinders of units B and D must alsobe reversible and since the inking fountains are fixed, each inkingsystem of the multi-color units is provided with a pair of transferrollers 45 and 46 between the pick-up roll 47 and the roller 48, asdescribed in said copending application, so that although the pick-uproll runs always in one direction the rotation of the inking drum maybevaried at will by changing the position of said idlers from that shownin full lines in Fig. 1' to that shown in full lines in Fig. 2.

While I have shown a preferred embodiment of my invention and severalweb leads it will be understood that the drawings and specification areto be taken as illustrative and not limitative of my invention. Forinstance, I may use perfecting press units in place of the printingcouples A and C and my invention is not confined to the specificmulti-color unit shown. It will be understood therefore that I reservethe right to make such changes in form, construction and arrangement ofparts as fall within the spirit and scope of the following claims.

I claim:

1. In a web press, a pair of multiple-impression printing units, aprinting couple located between said units, and means for leading a webfrom the printing couple through either of said units.

2. In a web. press, a pair of multiple-impression printing units, aprinting couple located between said units, and means for leading a webfrom the printing couple through either of said units, each of saidunits being reversible whereby the web may be led in either directionthrough said units to print either face of the web.

3. In a web press, a pair of multi-color printing units, a single-colorprinting unit located between said niulti-color units, and means forleading a web from the single-color unit through either of themulti-color units.

4. In a web press, a pair of multi-color printing units, a single-colorprinting unit located between said rnulti-coior units, and means forleading a web from the single-color unit through either of thernulti-color units, each multi-color unit being reversible whereby theweb may be led in either direction through said unit to print eitherface of the web.

5. In a web printing press, a series of single-impression andmultiple-impression printing units arranged in tandem with thesingle-impression units alternating with the multiple-impression units,and guide rollers at each side of each multiple-impression unit wherebya web may be guided into the latter unit from either of the immediatelyadjacent single-impression units.

6. In a web printing press, a series of singleimpression andmultiple-impression printing units arranged in tandem with thesingle-impression units alternating with the multiple-impression units,and guide rollers at each side of each multipledmpression unit whereby aweb may be guided into the latter unit from either of the immediatelyadjacent single-impression units, the multiple-impression units beingreversible to print either face of the web.

HENRY A. WISE WOOD.

